Life-size sculpture of a postman made from junk mail

I was asked recently to create a sculpture from junk mail for a BBC1 programme entitled ‘That’s Britain’.  The production company, Wall to Wall, delivered the junkmail (nearly 800 pieces, collected over 3 weeks by 20 households in Stoke Newington, London) to my studio and I created this sculpture of a postman.  I sorted the mail into different colour types to get the blue of the shirt, red for the bag, brown for the hair, black for the shorts/shoes, and mainly white for the skin.  The idea of the project is to highlight the quantity of paper wasted through unsolicited advertisements being pushed through people’s letterboxes.  To find out more about how to stop junkmail, visit Stop Junk Mail, a not-for-profit junk mail advice service. Their website provides free, independent, and objective information about stopping unsolicited mail.

Then on into Walthamstow village, where we popped into Penny Fielding’s Beautiful Interiors shop which was bustling with people drinking wine, and the Queen’s Arms to have a look at Kitty Brown’s photographs (www.kittybrownphotography.co.uk).  Then finished off at the Rose and Crown on Hoe Street, where there is lots to see.

A busy first night – nice to meet more local artists and discover some new spaces.  Today I think I’ll start off by heading down to the Hornbeam Centre and Forest Recycling Project…

The Silent Auction, running throughout the weekend and online at http://www.artworksproject.com/ from 7th September, is a sealed bid sale of works hung throughout the studio’s corridors.

In addition to the Open Studios and Silent Auction we have more going on: the ArtWorks Open exhibition will be in the project space, and members of ‘Forest Poets’ will be performing poetry readings on Saturday Sep 10th between 1:00pm and 3:30pm.  For children there will be an Art Quiz (with prizes donated by Jackson’s Art Supplies) to encourage younger visitors to explore the studios and look more closely at the artists’  work.

We are part of the popular week-long arts festival the E17 Art Trail.  Nearby venues also exhibiting over the weekend include Inky Cuttlefish Studios, Tokarska Gallery and The Mill.  For more information about the trail visit http://www.e17arttrail.co.uk

Blackhorse Lane Studios are only 15 minutes from the West End by London Underground or Overground.
The address is 114 Blackhorse Lane, Walthamstow, London, E17 6AA.  The nearest tube station is Blackhorse Road on the Victoria Line and Overground.

Invite to open studios at Blackhorse Lane, Walthamstow

The response at RWM was fantastic, people were inspired to see something creative and innovative being done with waste materials, in the midst of an exhibition which featured a lot of machinery for sorting and compacting materials.  I met some really interesting and friendly people, from organisations such as Freegle, Childrens’ Scrapstore and Green World Recycling.

Work in progress on portrait sculptures at RWM

Recycled portrait sculpture, made at RWM 2010

The show runs from 14th to 16th September.

The Open Studios event is timed to run alongside Walthamstow’s E17 Art Trail, run by artists every September.  I’m exhibiting at two venues this year.  I’ll have two sculptures at the Hornbeam Centre and will be opening my studio for the open studios, where I’ll be working on current projects and have sculptures in various stages of completion.  You can pick up an Art Trail guide at any participating venue, or download one from the website here: http://www.e17arttrail.co.uk/

Barbican Arts Group Trust Director Mark Wainwright says: “This is your chance to meet artists in their work environments, get insights into how and what they create, and even take home a work of art. Engage in one of the most exciting aspects of contemporary art by discussing art with the artists themselves. Stop by and enjoy, be inspired and perhaps challenged at this friendly, relaxed event.”

Mark added: “It is also a good opportunity to purchase original works at pre-gallery prices! Visitors will have the chance to buy an artwork by a Blackhorse Lane artist at a low price in Art In The Corridor, with 15% going to the Barbican Arts Group Trust for the ArtWorks Public Programme. A week before the event photos and details of the £40+ sale will be available on the Blackhorse Lane website.”

To find out more visit www.artworksproject.com.

Dandelion clock sculpture in progress

Making dandelion clock sculpture in the park

At Art & Seek on Sunday I took along some small sculptures and work in progress, and spent the day working on this dandelion clock sculpture.  The head is a sputnik-style lamp fitting that I found, and the seed heads are made from aluminium drinks cans.

There was a steady flow of interested visitors and lots going on all around the park – food, sculpture, performance, drawing, banner-making, craft stalls….  People picked up maps  and followed the trail, some answering the quiz questions to win a prize.  General response from the public was really good. It got people exploring different areas of the park and cemetery and being delighted and surprised by what they discovered – installations, projects, performances, stalls, people working happily and intently on interesting, beautiful and sustainable things. There was even banana and chocolate pizza being cooked in a pizza oven!

Hope to see you there!

Two recycled penguins

I’ve been making penguins from random bits and pieces.  Mostly empty paint tubs courtesy of Forest Recycling Project (via East London Community RePaint), but also tennis racquets, a kettle, light fittings, plastic bottles and coathangers and lots of other objects from reclamation yards and charity shops.

I made six in my studio with the help of Alice Power, a fellow artist, and am running penguin-making workshops in a yurt at London Zoo.  Some children made four new penguins to add to the expanding colony this weekend, and we’ll be making more from the 18th to the 22nd of December.  I’m aiming for at least 20.

I’m also busy making a lifesize recycled camel out of old bits of furniture.  It will be taken to the zoo in the next few days, where alongside the penguin-making I’ll be cladding it with hessian coffee sacks, also supplied by Forest Recycling Project.

From the 18th to the 22nd children can also make animal headdresses and masks to join in an animal parade which is part of London Zoo’s Christmas Carnival.